@mangaii firstly thanks for starting this thread. The tips and advice shared here is very useful for me too. Hope you dont mind me riding on this thread. Dipping into the collective wisdom of ILites, is this a good time to invest in stocks? I am a novice and probably will look towards local market - some in shares and ETFs for now. The markets look like it will go down a lot more and I think I should wait and watch... but one consistent advice I get is it is best not to time the market. Any wisdom to share ...
Just my my 2 cents, do not handover the control of the investment to anyone, you do the research and you invest the money directly using investment platforms like Fidelity, Vanguard etc. You can get investment advice from paid investment advisers but do not handover the control of investing to them you keep it under your control. Learn from the the past
Thank you @Minion ... I did try vanguard , was little complicated for me to understand . But yes I will limit to just advice from them and do the actual investing part myself.
I wanted to update this thread . Nature curtailed my spending habits . I haven’t spent even a cent extra from essentials . My husband got furloughed today . I hope I can survive another long term of unemployment.
Depression is likely coming. But no one knows the future. The best thing to do, if you have the money, is to dollar cost average. Split it into 10 or 20 portions and invest once a week. Your gains might not be high, but, you should plan on buying and holding.
kudos for not spending on the non- essentials. Our miscellaneous spending has increased quite a bit because of the ability to order from Amazon. Both kids are at home since March 13th, we have ordered workbooks, games, board games, art supplies etc. to keep them busy. I see those a good investment though. My first grader is doing 3re grade math and comprehension so atleast it’s helping him. Sorry to hear about the furlough. Most of us are going to see furloughs or salary cuts if we are able to keep the jobs. My husband and I are preparing ourselves for the salary cut. We have started putting more in saving account and paying less towards the mortgage (we were aggressively paying the mortgage to get it all paid in 10 years, we are still paying a little extra but not as much as we were). Both of us will go up for tenure in spring 2021, hope all goes well!
@mangaii sorry to hear about the furlough. If you can apply for unemployment benefits it pays an extra $600/week over the regular amount for a few months. Everyone in our organization has already been asked to take one week of unpaid leave. We are hoping we will be able to get back to work soon.
Thank you @MalStrom for the information. I was not aware the the furloughed employees can receive the $600/ wk benefit. Good to know. Everything you need to know about furloughs—and how they're different from being laid off
You don't have to apply separately to get the $600, if you apply for un-employment benefit in your state you will automatically receive the $600. If you are not a US citizen please read this before you apply. The Public-Charge Rule: Broad Impacts, But Few Will Be Denied Green Cards Based on Actual Benefits Use
